Caisse Buys Financials, Retailers

Craig Sebastiano | February 14, 2008

The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec bought a number of financial and retail stocks in the fourth quarter of last year.

In a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the pension fund disclosed it purchased 864,823 shares of Bank of America, 236,577 shares of Bank of New York Mellon, 100,501 shares of SLM Corporation, and 641,459 shares of Wells Fargo & Co. It held no stock in any of those companies at the end of the third quarter.

The Caisse also increased its position in Citigroup significantly. It held 1,743,921 shares of the bank at the end of the fourth quarter, compared to 92,550 shares at the end of the previous quarter.

The pension fund also made a foray into the retail sector, purchasing 16,784 shares of Abercrombie & Fitch, 14,300 shares of Aeropostale, 61,119 shares of Kohl’s, 284,994 shares of Lowe’s Companies, 84,369 shares of Macy’s, and 26,430 shares of Tiffany & Co.

As well, the Caisse increased its stake in two other retailers. It owned 1,313,208 shares of The Gap and 566,839 shares of Home Depot at the end of the fourth quarter, compared to 426,839 shares and 238,000 shares, respectively, at the end of the previous quarter.

It also raised its stake in BCE—which is subject to be taken over by a consortium led by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan—to 2,859,512 shares from 2,579,477 shares. The stock is still trading below the offer price of $42.75 a share. For more about the BCE deal, click here.

During the fourth quarter, the Caisse nearly tripled its stake in Yahoo, buying an additional 391,283 shares to hold 600,611 at the end of the year. Microsoft made a hostile bid for the internet firm earlier this month.

Click here to read Caisse Sells Shares of U.S. Banks, Brokerages, which mentions some of the pension fund’s equity transactions in the third quarter.